The World Elite University Football Tournament 2019 kicked off at South China University of Technology (SCUT) on July 13 with football teams from 12 world renowned universities from China, the UK, the US, Canada, and Italy gathering to communicate and test out their skills.

The World Elite University Football Tournament was launched by Tsinghua University in 2016 and is an iconic football event for college students around the world. The 2019 edition was attended by teams from Peking University, Tsinghua University, SCUT, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of British Columbia, University of Southern California, University of Tubingen, Leiden University, Polytechnic University of Turin, and University of Witwatersrand.

The opening ceremony of the World Elite University Football Tournament 2019. [Photo/scut.edu.cn]

According to Liu Bo, director of the sports department of Tsinghua University and executive president of the World Elite University Football Alliance, the tournament enables footballers to learn from each other, as well as communicate with each other. It also allows students from elite overseas universities to learn more about Chinese culture and understand China's current development.

"It is a very good platform for publicity and communication," Liu said.

On the same day, the 2019 World Elite University Football Development Forum was held at SCUT. Concentrating on youth football development, the forum aimed to analyze the development status of campus football at home and abroad, share the experience of world-class university campus football development, explore the model and path of campus football talent training, as well as provide suggestions for the development of youth campus football in China.

Footballers test their skills on the pitch. [Photo/scut.edu.cn]